Protected: New Large Format Cyanotypes
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Sep 032017
Aug 272017
There are several websites that have collections of Blu-Ray screencaps from various movies. But “2001” has somehow failed to be the number-one screengrabbed movie. Finally, though, one of the sites has made a bajillion screencaps from the “2001” Blu-Ray and posted them. Behold your new background screens!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Now I need to start whining about the lack of a thousand “2001” 4K screencaps…
Aug 192017
New to YouTube:
Aug 132017
As a followup to the photos of the H-33 display model, here’s a Grumman report from July, 1971, giving a pretty good and well illustrated description of the H-33 orbiter.
The abstract on NTRS can be seen HERE.
The PDF file can be directly downloaded here:
Alternate space shuttle concepts study. Part 2: Technical summary. Volume 2: Orbiter definition
Support the APR Patreon to help bring more of this sort of thing to light!
Aug 122017
The H-33 orbiter was designed in early 1971 to be launched atop a reusable manned flyback booster, a truly giant supersonic vehicle. The orbiter itself was similar in configuration to the Shuttle Orbiter as actually built, but it differed in that it had internal liquid oxygen tanks and expendable external hydrogen tanks, rather than a single large ET. The NASM has some good photos of a display model of the full system.
The H-33 was a popular design, at least at Grumman. A number of display models were made of it, including this detailed “cutaway” model made – seemingly – of plexiglas.
I have uploaded the full-rez images to the 2017-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to all $4 and up APR Patrons. If interested, wander on by the APR Patreon and sign up. Lots of aerospace goodies available.
Aug 122017
For what it’s worth:
North Korea’s “not quite” ICBM can’t hit the lower 48 states
Some folks associated with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists examined the trajectories of recent Nork ICBM test flights, looked at the presumed performance of the motors and propellant, and have concluded that the Hwasong-14 “ICBM” is a “sub-ICBM.” One of the authors of the study is a long-time critic of missile defense systems, so YMMV.
Even if the missile was a full-up ICBM capable of lobbing to New York City the kind of nuke the Norks could actually build, I would not bet large sums on the missile working as advertised in operational practice. That said… Lil’ Kim seems like a nut. Give him a weapon that will probably fail and tell him it’ll probably work (and I imagine his underlings will say what they think they need to in order to avoid the firing squad), and who knows, he might decide that The Stars Are Right and it’s time for his apotheosis via nuclear fire.
I’d be less sanguine about the chances of success for a missile like this lobbing a nuke *over* the US. A few dozen kilotons a few hundred miles up could wreak a whole lot of havoc via EMP.
Aug 112017
Had someone ask for the Saturn V large format cyanotype I used to produce. While I have some remaining cyanotypes, the Sat V’s are gone. If there’s some interest, I’ll make a short run.
Aug 102017
This is the sort of thing you’d think we’d already have:
Goodbye, MiG: Boeing, General Dynamics Debut Anti-Aircraft Stryker
It can pack:
- AI-3s, a ground-launched version of the AIM-9 missiles used by US fighters, with significantly better range and maximum altitude than the old Stinger.
- Longbow Hellfires, originally an anti-tank missile, made famous as the favored weapon of the Predator drone, and suitable for both ground targets and low-flying aircraft like helicopter gunships.
- Hydra 2.75 inch guided rockets;
- 0.50 caliber machineguns;
- and even low-powered lasers capable of burning out quadcopters and other small drones.
Aug 072017
BWXT Awarded $18.8 Million Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Design Contract by NASA
NASA has apparently given reactor manufacturer a contract to design a next general nuclear thermal rocket engine, a modernized NERVA. This is in support of a manned mission to Mars.
While this is of course great news, it’s not exactly world-shattering in scope. A total of 15 employees are slated to work on the project. And given politics, the chances of a nuclear thermal rocket getting to the test stand are minimal, to say nothing of getting on a launch vehicle. It would be interesting if SpaceX got on board with the project, put its money where Musks mouth is. I’m sure SpaceX wants to design their own NTR, but they don’t have the decades of experience at actually designing reactors that BWXT has.
I will also point out, just before I go off into a corner and cry, that I interviewed at BWX for a job back in 1999.
Aug 052017
A couple videos showing how the USAF used to transport the Atlas ICBM back in the day: